Before Becoming a Royal, Meghan Markle Played an Important Role in This Hollywood Couple’s Wedding
Ever since she married into the royal family, there’s been a lot of things fans have learned about Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. While many little known facts about her have come to light since she became engaged to Prince Harry, there is one thing about the California native that might be common knowledge: she once did calligraphy invitations and save-the-dates for a well-known celebrity couple.
Meghan Markle is a professional calligrapher
Long before she walked down the aisle and became the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan worked various jobs to try and make a living for herself.
Five years prior to her big break on Suits—Meghan supported her budding Hollywood career by working at Paper Source, a small shop for decorative papers and custom stationery, in Beverly Hills.
Since she had such beautiful penmanship, Meghan would write wedding and party invitations for many folks in Hollywood and even taught a two-hour-long course on calligraphy.
In 2018, Meghan told Esquire that she learned the tricky skill as a young girl, noting that she discovered her knack for cursive writing while attending an all-girls Catholic school.
“I’ve always had a propensity for getting the cursive down pretty well,” she said. “What it evolved into was my pseudo-waitressing job when I was auditioning. I didn’t wait tables. I did calligraphy.”
Meghan Markle reportedly did Paula Patton and Robin Thicke’s wedding invitations
While working as a freelance calligrapher, the Duchess of Sussex was pegged to do invitations for at least one celebrity bash: Paula Patton and Robin Thicke’s 2005 wedding (the couple has since divorced).
Two months before her June nuptials to the “Blurred Lines” singer, Patton visited Paper Source looking to hire someone who could do calligraphy on both envelopes for her invitations and save-the-dates for around 200 guests.
It was there she met Meghan and was instantly struck by the soon-to-be royal’s kind demeanor.
“Meghan was sweet and said I can do [your wedding invitations]!” the actor recalled while sitting down with Town & Country in 2018. “I said I can pay you, and so she did it.”
After receiving her custom-made invitations and save-the-dates, Patton was blown away by the future Duchess of Sussex’s work and praised her for her attention to detail.
“Meghan wrote up all the addresses and such,” she told the magazine. “There was not a single mistake, it was truly perfect, impeccable, and I remember being in awe of her.”
“I just thought Meghan did a beautiful job,” Patton added. “It really is a lost art, and it was so nice to create something without a device that doesn’t use a battery or need to be plugged in.”
Though Meghan is now royalty and could easily have others craft beautiful hand-written documents for her, it’s likely she will always have a love for the art of calligraphy.
